Santa Monica will get a lot more great makeup brands, stockings, lingerie and all the necessity items a store like Bloomingdale’s brings next week, when the construction of the new Bloomies in Santa Monica Place is open, after a ribbon cutting, on August 6th, Friday. Fashionrules will attend a press breakfast on August 3rd and give you the scoop on Tuesday of next week. But in the meantime, the store and its mother company are wasting no time infiltrating the beach community. The store will support local charities and make sure to give back to the neighborhood. That should endear them quickly to Santa Monica locals. The week kicks-off with a pre-opening cocktail reception and seated dinner on August 4th, underwritten by Bloomingdale’s and hosted by Chairman/CEO Michael Gould, at the new Santa Monica location. Bloomingdale’s will donate 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales and 10% of all sales from the evening to the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute Women’s Heart Center. The following day, Bloomingdale’s will hold a private shopping event to benefit 10 local charities. The charities include: The Broad Stage, Heal the Bay, John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John’s Health Center, KCRW, Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC), P.S. ARTS, Santa Monica Conservancy, Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Venice Family Clinic. Immediately following the private shopping event, Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica will turn its attention to the Santa Monica Pier for a Bloomingdale’s sponsored evening of the 26th Annual Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series featuring Rickie Lee Jones. Looks like Bloomies in SM will be hard to avoid!

We can pretty much predict what celebrities will wear on a night time red carpet – that’s become predictable. But industry lunches are still “anything goes.” For instance, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the group that stages and votes on The Golden Globe Awards – held a luncheon this week at the Four Seasons Doheny. The attendees were across the board of film and television, and also, across the board, fashion-wise. For instance, Nicole Kidman wore an olive green sort of leafy color garden party dress in the fifties style that’s so popular for fall: a tight bodice and a full skirt. This is a silhouette we haven’t seen in many a season – leave to Nicole to kick off the trend. Jane Lynch wore a silver blazer over her black trousers. And Annette Bening and Eva Longoria (Hollywood’s most ubiquitous actress – is there a party she hasn’t been at?) both did the “safe black shift” industry look. Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” and John Slattery of “Mad Men” also turned up. So we can guess who’s looking for Golden Globe nominations – which won’t be out till early December.

Simply Vera Vera Wang is the unbelievably priced line by Vera that retails at Kohl’s stores and Kohl’s online. It’s one of the best low priced designer lines out there, always with good colors, wearable pieces – and they make up a very cool looking outfit, for almost no piece retailing for more than a hundred bucks. You can’t beat that. The fall line is in a color palette of greys, black, burgundy, and earth tones. The most outstanding pieces include frilly, feminine cardigans and sweaters, graphic print tops and dresses, oversized necklaces with chunky jeweled accents, embellished handbags and colorful, textured leggings. This is a very good collection to update your legwear wardrobe with, which is a big fall trend. We especially like the leather jacket with sequin details – because fall is all about texture – and Vera knows it. You can check out the entire lookbook at www.kohls.com. And you’ll want to start grabbing up those pieces when they go on sale, because they sell out FAST.

Collaborations, crossovers and projects between fashion labels and artists has turned into a great creative endeavor – and a lucrative move for all parties involved. Louis Vuitton kicked it off with their Murakami bags, and it’s been spiraling ever since. Now 7 For All Mankind has joined forces with a famed Japanese photographer named Mika Ninagawa, for a limited edition collaboration. 7 For All Mankind by Mika Ninagawa will launch in mid-August and is the first collaboration in which the denim brand has incorporated the works of a photographer. From capturing the true essence of her human subjects to highlighting the vibrant color in her still life photos of flowers, goldfish and landscapes, Mika’s style is unique, mixing bright colors and semi-skewed pop art, with the eye of a trained photographer. She is represented by the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, the team that introduced the world to Takashi Murakami – and her work has been shown at famed international galleries including the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. Her works have also been featured in fashion publications such as Vogue Nippon, Elle Japan, Dazed & Confused Japan and Harper’s Bazaar. Seven styles will fuse together 7 For All Mankind’s denim sportswear with Mika’s iconic flowers. The women’s line features two t-shirts, one with a blue rose print and the other with a brightly colored lily print. The Boyfriend Shorty Short in Light Destroyed Adara Blue gets a burst of color with floral printed pocket linings that peek out just below the hemline. The men’s line features one t-shirt with an x ray black and grey orchid print and another tee with one of the colorful vine prints. Mika’s iconic vine print has also been screen printed in black onto The Rhigby, 7 For All Mankind’s skinniest fit for men. The 7 For All Mankind By Mika Ninagawa collection retails from $89 to $198, and will be available mid August at all 7 boutiques in the U.S. and around the world.

These days, hair extentions are ubiquitous, and certainly not just in Hollywood anymore. Extensions are big business for hair dressers around the globe, and they come in various forms: sewn in, glued in, or clipped in – so they can be easily removed. Well, Lindsay Lohan, we now know, has the sewn-in ones. That means they’re bonded to her own hair, and take hours to remove, by a very delicate process. It could take 4 to 6 hours just to take them out. (And it will be very damaging to her own hair, fyi.) Well, it turns out that at the women’s facility in Lynwood, California, a detainee has to remove her hair extentions upon arrival. Why is this, we’re not sure. Could someone toss them out the prison window and climb down them like Rapunzel? How are they harmful? Well, Lindsay did not remove hers upon arrival – after all, they’re expensive! And she’s still going to have her pictures taken in jail. So the prison authorities decided she could leave them in, because it’s too hard to take them out. Meanwhile, LL only has a week left to go in jail. Think of the pr when she gets out. And now, think of the pr about her having hair extensions. And you think celebs don’t get preferential treatment in jail?

The French label Paul & Joe will have a little fete in their Robertson Boutique, 138 S. Robertson, Thursday night July 29, from 7 pm to 9pm. You can shop the fall 2010/11 collection now and get a jump on your fall wardrobe – and it doesn’t hurt that they are offering a ten percent discount. Yay, the first sale of the fall season! There will be cocktails and macarons, those gorgeous French pastel cookies. Tres Francais.

Bathing suits are tough, let’s face it. It’s all about the fit, and how much skin you want to reveal. Well, here’s an interesting idea: vintage (dry-cleaned, don’t worry) bathing suits by Yves Saint Laurent, Missoni, Pucci, Norma Kamali, Thierry Mugler, Body Glove and more. And there are one pieces available, bikinis, and even cover ups and swimwear. They’re really cool looking and are very good conversation starters. It’s a whole unique way to go, and we think it’s radically interesting! Resurrection is carrying them now, and it’s at 8006 Melrose, 323 651 5516, www.resurrectionvintage.com – you can also purchase them online, but we don’t recommend buying a bathing suit online. But you can at least cruise them there first if you want.

Yes, now the really amazing markdowns begin. Sigerson Morrison, our favorite L.A. shoe store (8307 West 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048 323.655.6133), is marking all the spring shoes – and bags – down to seventy percent off starting this Thursday July 29. And since they have tons of black shoes, summer boots, flat boots, etc, for spring – you can stock up on footwear that will look just as good this fall. This is smart shopping, people. – Merle Ginsberg

There are now so many international fashion weeks: Mexico, Australia, India (both Mumbai and Delhi), Toronto, etc – that it’s hard to ignore that fashion is theater now all around the world. (Okay, maybe not in the Muslim countries.) This week, we discovered, something called “Colombiamoda” is going on in Medellin Colombia – and designer Esteban Cortazar, raised in Bogata and Miami, is showing a short, tight revealing collection there. It’s not what we would expect for South America, particularly Colombia – it’s definitely in-your-face sexy. Interesting. We also learned that most of the country is above the equator, but some of it just below: which means it hovers from 60 degrees to 80 degrees there, and it’s either a dry season, or the rainy season. So perhaps these are the appropriate clothes for the climate after all.